Airplane



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L'H. DRIGGS AIRPLANE Filed Nov. 12 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet El July 15 1924.

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I. H. DRIGGS AIRPLANE Filed Nov. 12. 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet .WlnESSItlvenlur. M B i flLllUlInu I luv Patented July 15, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IVAN H. BRIGGS, 0F DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR T0 DAYTON-WRIGHT COMPANY, OFDAYTON, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

AIRPLANE.

Application filed November 12, 1921.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, IVAN H. DRIGGS, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Dayton, county of Montgomery, and State of Ohio,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Airplanes (Docket#25), of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to aircraft and more particularly to a type whichis capable of alighting on either land or water, a preferred form ofwhich has been chosen as convenient for the purposes of description andexplanation.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide that the structurenecessary for alighting on water should be ordinarily out of the way soas not to interfere with alighting on land or shipboard. and to greatlyreduce air resistance during flight. The float is therefore carriedbelow the fuselage and extended when it is desired to alight on thewater. In the illustrated design the float is extended by means ofcables attached to the lower end of the rear float struts, carriedaround strongly anchored pulleys at the upper end of the front strutsand attached to a drum at the rear of the observers cockpit. The floatis normally held in place by catches which may be released by theobserver. The weight of the float will be suflicient to start itswinging down into position and a light spring in the drum is providedto take up the slack in the cable. Near the bottom of its path the airdrag on the float will be greater than the component of its weight andit becomes necessary for the observer to wind up the cables on the drumby means of the hand lever shown, in order to draw the float forward toits extended position under the propeller. In the meantime he will haveopened the valves of the air tanks fastened under the fuselage. Eachtank is connected by air hose to a section of the air bag on the top ofthe float. The injector in each line makes it possible to fill the bagin a short time. In its extended position the float is braced laterallyand longitudinally by cables. The cables from the lower end of the frontstruts to the upper end of the rear struts are attached rigidly to theshaft of a drum. This drum by means of a light spring takes up the slackin the cables when the float is retracted.

Serial No. 514,468.

The area and range of adjustment of the horizontal stabilizer issuflicient to balance the airplane for flight with the float extended.

Another object of the invention is to rovide folding wings having thelanding c assis carried thereon and foldable therewith. The landingchassis thus does not interfere with the operation of the retractilefloat means.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, wherein preferred forms of embodiment of the present inventionare clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a side elevation showing the relation between the retractilefloat and the airplane fuselage in both the fully extended and inflatedposition and fully retracted deflated position of the float.

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing the float and its operating mechanism inretracted position, the fuselage being shown in dotted mes.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the airplane with float extended, thefolded position of the wings and attached landing chassis being shown indotted lines,

Fig. 4 is a view on a larger scale showing part of the mechanism shownin Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the mechanism shown in Fig. 4, and showingin dotted lines the other position of the rear strut and attached airhose.

Fig. 6 is a plan view showing the folded position of the wings in dottedlines.

Fig. 7 is a composite view, the left side showing a section through theairplane immediately in rear of the rear strut and looking forward,while the right side shows a section immediately in front of the frontstrut and looking backward.

Fig. 8 is a section through the float with the bag inflated.

In the drawings like reference characters refer to like parts throughoutthe several views.

Numeral 10 designates the body or fuselage of the airplane and 11 thepropeller. The retractile float means comprises a rigid bottom floatmember 12 having the water planing surface and well known step thereon,and the inflatable air bag 9 attached thereto in order to increase thedisplacement of the shallow rigid float to give the proper buoyancy. Therigid float is preferably built up of spruce and plywood in a mannerwell known in the art except that it is made much more shallow so thatit will offer only small air resistance when in its retracted position.The float 12 is supported by the fuselage 10 by means of the frontstruts 13 and rear struts 14 pivoted upon the float fittings 15 and 16and fuselage fittings 17 and 18 respectively. In its extended positionthe float 12 is braced laterally by the cross brace wires 20 between thefront struts 13 and by the wires 21 between the rear struts 14 (seeFigs. 2 and 3). The float is braced longitudinally by theoperatingcables 25 which are fastened at the fittings 16 at the lowerrear strut points and pass over the strongly anchored pulleys 26 at theupper front strut points and thence backward to the operating drums 27which will be later more fully described. These cables 25 are wound upondrums 27 until the cables 30 extending from the lower front strutfittings 15 to the drums 31 are fully unwound, at which time the cables30 will prevent any further forward motion of float 12 and hence willact as the opposing cross brace wires to the cables 25.

The upper contour of the float 12 and the lower contour of the fuselage10 are mutually formed to fit snugly together so that when the float isin its retracted position as shown at 12 (see Fig. 1) the fuselage andfloat together form a stream lined shape which will have greatly reducedair resistance. Of course the air bag 9 will be entirely deflated whenfloat 12 is in its retracted position. The float is normaly held in itsretracted position by a catch (not shown) on drum 31.

l/Vhen it is desired to extend the float in order to alight on thewater, the observer releases the catch on drum 31 and the weight of thefloat carries it downward and forward until the air resistancecounterbalances the component of the weight carrying it forward. A lightspring in drum 31 is provided to take up the slack in cable 30 and yetallow it to unwind until a certain limit is reached which determines thefurthermost osition to which cable 25 can extend the oat. Near thebottom of its path it is neces sary to draw the float forward by windingup cables 25 on the drums 27 These drums 27 are keyed to a transverseshaft 28. The shaft 28 is operated by the handle 29 which is operablyconnected to shaft 28 by some means such as the pawl and ratchet wheelarrangement 24 shown in Fig. 5. Thus by operating the handle 29 theobserver may draw the float forward until the cable 30 limits itsforward motion. The drums 27 are then locked in position to retain theproper tension on the cables 25.

The gas bag 9 is divided into three compartments 41, 42 and 43 extendinglongitudinaly of the float. Three compressed air tanks 44, 45 and 46arestrapped .to the bottom part of the fuselage for supplying air to thethree compartments 41, 42 and 43 respectively through the flexible hosemembers 47, 48 and 49. Each may be provided with an injector 50 by whichmeans a smaller amount of highly compressed air may inject a much largervolume of air at the pressure required in the air bag 9. The outletvalves 51 of the three tanks are preferably simultaneously operated by asingle means 52 and the flexible cable 53 leading to the operatinghandle 54 in convenient reach of the operator of handle 29. Now when thefloat is released and is bein drawn forward by the operation of han le29 the valves 51 may be opened so that the air bag 9 will be filled in avery short time. The air hose are preferably strapped to the rear struts14 and being flexible they easily follow the movement of the struts whenrotated, as shown in dotted lines at 47 in Fig. 5.

in the design illustrated in the drawings no provision has been made forretracting the float while in flight, the idea in this de sign beingthat after an emergency landing it will be left in the extended positionand 9 the air plane will be hoisted aboard the carrier ship.

If the float 12 is designed with sufficient dimensions to enable theplane to take off from the water the drums 31 may be provided withcranking means similar to the cranking means of drums 27, by which meansthe float could be retracted during flight by winding up cables 30 ondrums 31 and allowing cables 25 to unwind from drums 27.

The change in the center of gravity of the machine due to the change inposition of the float is neutralized by adjusting the horizontalstabilizer. Since adjustable horizontal stabilizers are well known inthe aviation art it has not been deemed necessary to illustrate ordescribe the same in this application.

When the fioat 12 is in retracted position the front struts 13 and thecross wires 20 interfere with the bottom skin of the fuse lage 10 (seeFigs. 1 and 2). To overcome this difficulty the bottom skin is out alongthe lines as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2, and the sections of theskin, marked A, are hinged at the outer edge and provided with springsto hold the sections A in closed up position. Now when the float isextended the struts 13 press the sections A downward causing saidsections to swing about the are 61 (see Fig. 7) until, when the float 12is in fully extended position, the sections A extend substantiallyvertically downward as shown in Figs. 7 and 1. Of course when the floatis being retracted the spring hinges of sections A cause them to followup against struts 13 and close up the bottom skin of the fuselage up tothe position of the float 12 when fully retracted.

The airplane is provided with wings 70 and 71 which are hinged at theirrear inner strut points so that they may fold back alongside thefuselage 10 as shown in dotted lines at 70 and 71 in Figs. 3 and 6 forthe purpose of reducing the space required for storing. In the designillustrated, the landing wheels 72 are mounted on the foldable wings sothat there will be no possibility of the landing wheels interfering withthe retractile float means. Since the wheels 72 fold with the wings itwill be necessary to place the wheels on a dolly to move the airplaneforward when in folded position. If it is considered objectionable tohave the wheels foldable with the wings, the wheel chassis may bemounted on the center section and fuselage so it does not fold with thewing and still be clear of the retractile float.

While the forms of mechanism herein shown and described constitutepreferred forms of embodiment of the present invention, it is to beunderstood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within thescope of the claims which follow.

What I claim is as follows:

1. In an airplane having a fuselage, a center section and wings attachedto said center section, in combination, a single float means locatedcentrally of the airplane and attached to the fuselage for landing onwater, means for folding the wings back alongside the fuselage, androlling means located on each side of said float means for landing on asolid surface, said rolling means being at tached to and foldable withsaid wings.

2. In an amphibian airplane having afuselage and short wing panelsrigidly attached thereto, in combination, retractable float meanslocated centrally of the airplane for landing on water, main wingsattached to said short wing panels and foldable there with, wheel meansfor landing on land attached to said main wings, and means for foldingthe main wings together with the attached wheels means back alongsidethe fuselage.

3. In an amphibian airplane having a fuselage and main wings, incombination, retractable float means for landing on water attached tosaid fuselage, wheel means for landing on land attached to said mainwings and being independent of said float means, and means for foldingthe main wings together with said wheel means back alongside thefuselage.

4:. In an airplane having a fuselage, a center section, and wingsattached to said center section, in combination, retractable float meanslocated centrally of the airplane for landing on water, means forfolding the wings back alongside the fuselage, and rolling means locatedon each side of said float means for landing on a solid surface, saidrolling means being attached to and foldable with said wings.

In testimony whereof I hereto aflix my signature.

IVAN H. BRIGGS.

Witnesses:

R. K. LEE, L. H. EMRICK.

